New Member

Hey everyone I'm kind of confused with my Craftsman 101-07403 that I just picked up. I just went through it and tightened everything up and I noticed a set screw on the headstock pulley pack. I'm confused because I don't understand why the set screw is there. If the set screw is tightened to the spindle, when you pull the pin out on the bull gear to the pulley pack and rotate the spindle it still rotates everything because the pulleys are still under power of the belt. It makes the back gear system unoperable. However if the set screw is now screw down under normal turning operations the only thing seeming to be holding everything together is the bull gear pin. Can someone explain this to me. I'm sorry if this doesn't make much sense.

H-M Supporter - Gold Member

That's probably the least understood (and most often goofed up) feature on an Atlas/Craftsman. The factory should really have put a rubber plug or something instead of a setscrew, it just invites trouble since people don't read manuals
mark

New Member

Yeah well I'm sure the manual for my lathe was lost about 65 years ago and Maybe for some people this forum is easy to navigate around but it takes me about 20 minutes to figure out where to post a question so it's prob the last place I would think to read a manual from.

Downloads Moderator

I do need to mention that because of the storage space required, Downloads is one of the things that costs the site money every month. So not I think unreasonably, access to Downloads is restricted to donors. However, if you want to send me an email address in a PM, I'll send you the PDF copy of the 101.07403 manual. And also the one on the 101.21400, which is the same as the Atlas 618. It is a better manual, and the only significant differences between machines are that yours has sleeve spindle bearings and a ball thrust bearing, while the other two have Timken tapered roller bearings. And the 101.07403 stayed with the second version of countershaft whereas the other two both have the third version.